Home of suspect in homeless slayings searched

Jan. 14, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Itzcoatl Ocampo was arrested in connection with the stabbing death of a homeless man in Anaheim on Friday. Ocampo, 23, of Yorba Linda was seen running and shedding clothes as he ran from a Carl's Jr. restaurant, where a homeless man was found stabbed to death Friday night. MINDY SCHAUER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Deputy police chief Craig Hunter, right, and Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait, left, talk to the media about the murder of a homeless man behind a Carl's Jr. in Anaheim on Friday night. MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A little girl stands with a woman who did not what to give their names on the corner of Imperial Highway and La Palma Avenue near a police motorcycle at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a homeless man in Anaheim. MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A little girl huddles with a woman, who did not what to give their names , on the corner of Imperial Hwy and La Palma Ave. in Anaheim Hills nearby where a homeless man was found stabbed to death behind a Carl's Jr. A suspect in the murder was detained. MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Police investigators go over the scene of what is believed to be the latest homeless killing in Anaheim near the Carl's Jr. at the corner of La Palma Avenue and Imperial Highway on Friday nigtht. A 23-year-old Yorba Linda man has been arrested. MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Itzcoatl Ocampo was arrested in connection with the stabbing death of a homeless man in Anaheim on Friday. Ocampo, 23, of Yorba Linda was seen running and shedding clothes as he ran from a Carl's Jr. restaurant, where a homeless man was found stabbed to death Friday night. MINDY SCHAUER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The owner of the five-acre property said he was told investigators took shoes, clothing and a computer belonging to the 23-year-old suspect.

Itzcoatl Ocampo, of Yorba Linda, was seen running and shedding clothes Friday night after a transient was stabbed to death behind a Carl's Jr. restaurant near La Palma Avenue and Imperial Highway.

The Friday night death was the fourth time a homeless man was stabbed to death in the area in less than four weeks, and law enforcement officials from four local police agencies and the FBI are looking into Ocampo's connection to all four deaths.

Investigators searching for a serial killer are scrambling to find out what they can about a 23-year-old man who was tackled as he ran from the scene.

After Ocampo was taken into custody, investigators from the task force probing the serial killings began looking into his background, but authorities said the 23-year-old man had no criminal history and not much information is known about him.

Court records show that a man named Itzcoatl Ocampo had three minor traffic citations in recent years.

Ocampo is not homeless, officials said.

His picture is included in a 2006 yearbook of Esperanza High School.

Anaheim police arrested Ocampo shortly after a fourth homeless man was stabbed to death about 8:15 p.m. Friday next to a trash enclosure at a Carl's Jr. restaurant at the intersection of La Palma Avenue and Imperial Highway.

That victim, a man in his early 60s known as John by his friends, has not been officially identified by authorities.

On Saturday morning, more than a dozen law enforcement officials executed a search warrant at a home in the 4300 block of Lakeview Avenue, near Bastanchury Road, where Itzcoatl Ocampo had been living.

Officers showed up about 10 p.m. Friday and searched the three-bedroom home until about 7 a.m. Saturday.

The home sits on a five-acre horse ranch owned by Carol and Jim Tice, both 59, of Yorba Linda.

Jim Tice said he was been renting the home to Raul Gonzalez – who he believes to be the suspect's uncle – for about five years.

Tice said Gonzalez has always been punctual with rent, painted the house and made repairs to the 90-year-old home.

About six months ago, Tice said Gonzalez's sister moved in with her younger daughter and two older sons.

When police removed the crime scene tape from the home, Tice said he went to talk to Gonzalez and said he told him that police took his nephew's shoes, clothing and a computer.

Witnesses said Ocampo was followed by officers after the Friday night stabbing occurred, helping police take Ocampo into custody.

Louis Garcia lives in the nearby Friendly Village Mobile Home Park just east of the shopping center. He said witnesses to the stabbing followed the suspect as he ran along the sidewalk shedding clothes until he tried to bolt over a block wall about a quarter of a mile away from the stabbing site.

That's when a security guard there pulled him down, Garcia said.

"Within minutes, police had him surrounded and sat him down on La Palma Avenue," Garcia said. "He sat there wearing a red hoodie with his arms crossed. His face was expressionless."

By then, more than 100 police officers had arrived at the scene. Roads were blocked with patrol cars and flairs, and the sidewalk was cordoned with yellow police tape. People in the shopping center were told to stay where they were until the crime scene was secured.

Authorities believe Ocampo is connected to the recent slayings of three other homeless men in north Orange County.

All four victims were middle-aged men, a factor shared by most homeless victims of violent crime, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Since 1999, the group has been recording incidents of violent crimes perpetuated against the homeless throughout the country. According to a report issued by the Washington D.C.-based group this week, 65 percent of the homeless victims of such crimes are between the ages of 40 and 60.

The perpetrators of such crimes are usually young men with a limited education, according to the report. Nearly 80 percent of the suspects in recorded incidents were under the age of 25.

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